Josiah Willard Gibbs Lectures

Background

In order to show the public some idea of the aspects of mathematics and its applications, the AMS Council established the Josiah Willard Gibbs Lectureship in 1923. Gibbs (b. 1839—d. 1903), a mathematical physicist, was one of the greatest scientists America has ever produced. The speakers for these public lectures are selected by invitation. It is hoped that these lectures will enable the public and the academic community to become aware of the contribution that mathematics is making to present-day thinking and to modern civilization.

January 1981, San Francisco, California; Professor Cathleen S. Morawetz, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University; The mathematical approach to the sound barrier, AMS NS, v. 6, no. 2, pp. 127 – 145 (1982). Published under the title The mathematical approach to the sonic barrier.

January 1970, San Antonio, Texas; Professor Walter H. Munk, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego; Tides and time.

January 1961, Washington, D.C.; Professor J. J. Stoker, Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University; Some nonlinear problems in elasticity, Bulletin of the AMS, v. 68, no. 4, pp. 239 – 278 (1962). Published under the title Some observations on continuum mechanics with emphasis on elasticity.

December 1951, Providence, Rhode Island; Professor Kurt Gödel, Institute for Advanced Study; Some basic theorems on the foundations of mathematics and their philosophical implications. First published in his Collected Works, v. III, Oxford University Press, pp. 304 – 323 (1995). Published title omits the word ``philosophical".

December 1924, Washington, D.C.; Dr. Robert Henderson, Vice President, Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S.; Life insurance as a social science and as a mathematical problem, Bulletin of the AMS, v. 31, nos. 5 – 6, pp. 227 – 252 (1925).